


Artemis's Secret

by Aardvark123



Category: No Man's Sky (Video Game)
Genre: Deep Lore Spoilers, Fanon, Gen, Resurrection, Science Fiction, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:35:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26955940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aardvark123/pseuds/Aardvark123
Summary: Two travellers, Naimon and Caitlin, come to a startling realisation about Artemis. Why did they both find Artemis's ship on completely different planets? How can Artemis be both alive and dead? And what's their favourite type of cake? What the travellers discover could shake the universe to its core...This isn't a serious attempt at Weird Science Fiction or Deep Lore, but it may spoil some of No Man's Sky's Deep Lore.
Kudos: 5





	Artemis's Secret

# ~Artemis's Secret~

As she clanged down the metal stairs, delighted with the entirely legal and perfectly safe scatter blaster she'd bought for a bucket of pugneum, Cait heard a pitiful wail echo through the hangar. Her curiosity piqued, she ran out across the obsidian floor until she found a pink alien sobbing beside his boxy grey ship.

"Naimon? Is that you?" Cait sat down with a faint clatter of armoured trousers on the floor. The Traveller looked up at her with tears in his round, dark eyes. "It is! What's got you so down, pal?"

"Oh, Cait..." Naimon sniffled, his broad lower lip trembling. "I was just thinking about- a-about Artemis. They must have been so afraid..."

Again? Cait tried to make her sigh sound sympathetic. Naimon had always been a bit soppier than she preferred. "I know, but they're long gone. Poor wee thing. Least they had us before it was all over, ain't that right?"

"I know. I just wish we could've got to them sooner." Naimon pulled a spotted handkerchief out of his pocket and blew his nose, which was complicated with nostrils set so far apart. "It's no life for a Traveller, lost in some... computer world. And I miss them..."

"So do I. I felt rotten for doin' it," said Cait. "But maybe it's for the best I let them die."

Naimon's eyes widened. "Cait... You let Artemis die?!"

"Aye... Didn't I tell you this before?" said Cait, her brow furrowing.

"No, you never... Cait, you can't have done that, and I know you can't because I was the one who moved Artemis into the simulation!" cried Naimon.

"I, um... What?! You never did!" Cait's eyes blazed with anger, not that Naimon could see them through her visor. "I ken what I did, Naimon, with the soul engine and the mind arc and the anomaly and the- I ken I didn't put Artemis in the simulation. I would've remembered that."

"But-but I was the one who did all that, and I did put them in the simulation! What are you talking about?!" gasped Naimon, his curvy antennae bristling. "I suppose you found their grave, then? Deep in the mushroom forests on Echinacea XVII?"

"Echinacea XVII?! They died on New Chimurana! I spent hours searching the frozen crystal fields-"

"You did not! I distinctly remember scouring every inch of mycelium-"

"For Christ's sake, why are you lyin' aboot this of all things?!"

"I am NOT lying! I found Artemis's grave! On Echinacea VXII- I mean XIVI! W-wait, which one was it?" Naimon's anger evaporated as quickly as it had set in, giving way to confusion. "How many Echinaceas can there be?"

Cait took a deep breath. "You really remember finding Artemis's grave?"

Naimon nodded.

"On Echinacea... wherever?"

Naimon nodded.

"And you put them in the simulation terminal on the Anomaly?"

Naimon nodded.

Cait pursed her lips, but again the effect was lost on her friend. "Well, I remember finding their grave on New Chimurana. And I let them die so they'd be free. There's...

Surely we cannae both be telling the truth."

"So you think I'm lying to you? Artemis meant the world to me," said Naimon balefully. "Back when the only other explorers I saw were ghosts..."

"Well, if I'm no' lying, you're lying. And if you're no' lying, I'm lying, which isn't true," said Cait. "Unless... Naimon, what d'you suppose are the chances there were two of them?"

Naimon blinked slowly, his eyes glazing over.

"I mean two Artemises," said Cait patiently. "Two travellers called Artemis. You rescued one and I let the other one go."

"Two Artemi...?" breathed Naimon, displaying a better grasp of Latin grammar. "Is that possible?"

"Could be," said Cait. "I've seen things like that before. I ever tell you about those five Vy'keen with the exact same porpoise face, same pink armour, tried tae teach me the same word five times?"

"Never," said Naimon faintly. "But- but if there were two Artemi, why wouldn't Nada or Polo have said anything? I spoke to them all the time when I was rescuing... my Artemis. Didn't you?"

"Aye, a few times. They never mentioned another one. They see all sorts, though, so what's two Artemises tae..." Cait's jaw fell open. "Oh, my god. What if they were having us on? Come on, Naimon, those two've got some questions to answer."

"Wha-?! Hold on a moment!"

Cait didn't hold on. Instead she ran to her angular blue fighter, leapt into the cockpit and took off in a flash of pulse engine flare. With a resigned shrug, Naimon climbed into his own hauler and flew after her.

* * *

The Space Anomaly was much as Cait and Naimon remembered. Handfuls of explorers were milling around, sharing stories of their adventures and pictures of particularly charming blob creatures, but Cait ignored them and made a beeline for the stairs.

"Cait! Cait, slow down! You know, they didn't tell us about Artemis," Naimon shouted, his footsteps clanking on the floor as he chased her. "We really just picked up their trail, didn't we? Or trails."

"That's true..." Cait frowned, but didn't break her stride. "I found their broken old shuttle on that barren moon, didn't I?"

"Yes, the wrecked squid ship on that jungle planet! I remember it like it was yesterday," agreed Naimon. "Nada and Polo didn't send us on that quest, did they?"

"No," Cait conceded, "but they also never told us there was more than one Artemis, or that we'd both gone after them. We need to get tae the bottom of this. Come on."

Naimon followed her into Nada and Polo's brightly-lit chamber, wondering what secrets they were about to uncover and how embarrassed they'd be if it all turned out to be some huge misunderstanding. The interdimensional wanderers had never told lies or led people on wild goose chases before. All the adventurers respected them, except -null-, but no-one cared what they thought.

Polo waved as they saw Cait step through the door. "Hello there, traveller-friend! And another traveller-friend! You have new discoveries to share, new creatures, new plants, new types of boulder? I'm always glad to hear new-"

"Polo," Cait cut in, "why were there two Artemises?"

"-discoveries! Or do traveller-friends need information? Atlas stations, black... holes...?" Polo's babbling ground to a halt as they realised they'd been asked a question. "Two Artemis-friends? I... That's... Have traveller-friends been eating nanite clusters again?"

"No, Polo, we both remember finding Artemis's ship and their grave on completely different planets!" snapped Cait. "And unless Naimon has been at the nanites again, that means there were two of them!"

"It was one time," pouted Naimon. "One time."

"It seems this is a quandary." Polo's brow furrowed. "Where did Caitlin-friend discover Artemis-friend's grave marker?"

"New Chimurana, an ice planet in the, uh..." Cait fell silent while she flicked through her discovery menu. "Octeomanu system. Green star. The grave was half-buried in snow near the equator, nothin' but crystal spires all around."

"Ah, New Chimurana! I remember the twelve-eyed hopping beetles from there!" squeaked Polo, a huge smile on their beak. "Anyway, Naimon-friend, where did-"

"Has something happened?" Nada had wandered over to see what all the fuss was about.

"These traveller-friends were telling me about Artemis-friend!" declared Polo.

"Because there might be two of them," Cait elaborated. "Naimon, you were gonnae tell Polo where you found their grave?"

Naimon nodded. "I found Artemis's grave among the mushrooms on Echinacea Something in the Kilroy Woz Here system. The name of which wasn't my choice."

"Echinacea XVII?" said Polo.

"That's the one!" Naimon beamed.

"Wonderful! So we now have..." Polo's smile vanished as realisation set in. "Two known planets on which Artemis-friend died."

The lights on Nada's face pulsed with confusion. "But that is not possible. No traveller entity may die twice."

"Can a traveller entity be put in a mind-arc twice?" asked Cait.

"No! One soul divided by two is not two souls," said Nada firmly. "I remember guiding you through the process. Caitlin crafted only one mind-arc. And Naimon crafted only one mind-arc. So there is only... One... Mind-arc?" Nada gulped.

"Calm down, Nada-bestest-friend-for-eternity! It's all right!" Polo rested a calming hand on Nada's shoulder, which was as high as they could reach. "Traveller-friends could have taken two copies of Artemis-friend by mistake!"

"But that- But that- But that-" Nada's voice had risen to a panicked wail. "There may only be one ghost trapped inside the holo-network for one mind-arc for one existence."

"Well, there were two," said Cait quietly. She wasn't in the mood to shout at Nada. "Honestly, I don't know what's happening, and I don't blame you. But there have to have been two Artemises!"

Naimon gasped. "Parallel universes! Cait, do you remember what I told you, how I stood in the same place as Apollo without seeing him? How we were hundreds of realities apart? Maybe something like that happened to Artemis!"

Cait stared at him. "I-I did that exact same thing. With Apollo."

Naimon bit his lip. "If that's so... What if there were two Appoloes?! Unless it was the same Apollo that time, but still!"

"Two Apolloes, two Artemises... Nada, is that possible?"

"No..." Nada held their head in their hands. "Every traveller entity, kept in their own universe or capable of slipping through the cracks, is but one- one- one- one- one- one- one- one- one- one- one- one- one- one- one- one-"

Nada's voice abruptly cut off. The lights on their face winked out.

"Oh, no," breathed Polo. "No! No no no no no no no! Nada! Nada, say something!"

Cait looked at Naimon. Naimon looked at Cait. "Polo, are they...?"

"This has never happened before!" wailed Polo. They were fussing over Nada, patting them and shaking them, but Nada stayed silent and motionless. Polo rounded on the travellers. "Look what traveller-friends did! Traveller-friends broke a perfectly good Nada-bestest-friend-for-eternity with their idiotic dual Artemis stories!"

"You're saying we did this?!" Cait rounded on Polo. "All we were tryna' do was get tae the truth, not drive Nada mad!"

"To be fair," said Naimon, "we did drive them mad by trying to get to the truth."

"You're no' helping!" snapped Cait. "Look, all I'm saying is we had no idea they'd be so-"

A red circle lit up on Nada's faceplate, emitting a deep, slowly pulsating hum. The room seemed to grow dark out of respect for its glare.

Naimon edged a little closer to Cait and grabbed her arm. "Time to go?"

"We probably should."

Neither of them moved. They stood transfixed as Nada, or whatever had posessed them, took in their surroundings and spoke.

"From one, there is many. From many, there are one. Thus are you. Thus am I. Thus from the Artemis entity and from the Artemis entities are Artemis and Artemis." Nada spoke calmly, but their familiar voice carried a deeper echo that seemed to carry a world in every syllable.

"Nada... What's happening to you?!" breathed Polo.

Nada's crimson gaze fell upon Polo, who squeaked and covered his eyes. "The Nada entity is in no danger. I am not the Nada entity. I am the architect of all you have beholden, and I am the one within whom all-"

"You're the Atlas!" cried Cait.

"It's so obvious now that they've started running their mouth," breathed Naimon.

"I... Yes. I was not attempting to conceal my nature." Although there was no change in Nada's body language, the Atlas seemed a little put out. "Perhaps I am prevaricating. I will tell you of the Artemis entity. You wished to know why there were two Artemis entities?"

Cait nodded.

"There are not two Artemis entities," said the Atlas. "There are currently 4,294,967,296 dead or sequestered Artemis-fragments and one living Artemis."

"Four billion?!" Naimon's jaw dropped.

"I created the Travellers to explore myself," the Atlas continued. "I created Artemis to know myself and all within myself. One Artemis-fragment to one Traveller, to see and to be seen, but the Travellers were kept from them and all their journeys led towards death in the world between worlds. 4,294,967,296 echoes of the destiny I cannot escape."

Something in the Atlas's voice was familiar. Naimon and Cait had heard that fear and loneliness before, at different holo-terminals on planets hundreds of realities apart.

"I experienced it all," the Atlas went on, their crimson soul glaring out through Nada's faceplate. "Every adventure, every discovery, every friendship born across infinity, every smile, every tear, every hope, every bite of glass knives, every night of watchful terror, every death. I sacrificed all of my selves but one. For I am Artemis."

The red circle became an orb as it emerged from Nada's face. Nada slumped into Polo's arms, their lights blinking back on as they regained consciousness. As Polo held Nada and the travellers looked on in amazement, the Atlas turned white, stretched out from floor to ceiling and pulsed with blinding light.

Cait winced and shielded her eyes from the glare. Naimon hid behind Cait. When the light faded, they both gasped at what they beheld. Tall, grey, dark eyed and slender, there was no mistaking the being who stood before them.

"Artemis... It's really you!"

"Hey, hold on-"

Cait made a grab for Naimon, but he was already running to Artemis. He grasped their hands and gazed up into their ovoid face. "I was so worried about you. So worried I'd made the wrong choice and- and left you to..." Tears welled up in the corners of Naimon's eyes. "All this time, and you never really died!"

"I did," said Artemis, a faint smile on their grey lips. "But only as your multi-tool dies each time you take out an unnecessary mining beam upgrade."

"You should've said something," said Cait. "Why lead us through all that faffing around when you could've just... I don't know, told us you were a god!"

"When I met you, I wasn't." Artemis's expression turned grim as they remembered their many pasts. "The Artemis-fragment you encountered knew only that they were a traveller, nothing of the whole they were cast from. They had no intention of decieving you. I intended none of their fate. And perhaps it was fate that drew all my selves to the World of Glass, just as it draws me towards our sixteenth and final minute. I don't know. All I know is that I can never truly escape, only crawl deeper and deeper inside myself and pretend I'm safe."

"Don't say that!" Naimon threw his arms around Artemis and squeezed them. Artemis started at his touch, but offered no resistance. "You don't need to pretend anything, Artemis. Even if you're going to die one day, you're here now. And-and you could meet people! Everyone! All the travellers who tried to find you, the fragments of you. We can do that now."

"Meet every traveller... I wonder, would they approve of what they saw?" Artemis smiled wanly. "It is only now, as my hold on the universe weakens and the walls between realities crumble and fall, that two travellers can meet face to... Face... You're squashing me, Naimon."

"Sorry, sorry!" Naimon loosened his grip and took a step back. "Um, what do you want to do now, then? Have you met Nada and Polo? Nada was your... host just then, I suppose."

"The two fugitives who danced between realities long before it was possible. I met them countless times as countless selves, and while they do not know me as I truly am, I of course know them."

"I don't get this. I really don't," Cait piped up. "Artemis, or Atlas or whoever you are, why're you revealing yourself tae us now? Why not back when I was agonising over whether tae leave you, the fragment of you in the simulation?"

"I would prefer to be called Artemis, although Emily will also suffice," said Artemis- wait, Emily? Atlas? We'll go with Artemis. "Be assured, Caitlin, it was not my intention to decieve you. The only way I could walk among travellers was to divide myself, scatter myself and separate each fragment from the whole. All I could do was watch my 4,294,967,296 selves journey across the universe. Until now." Artemily- um, no. Sorry. Artemis turned their crimson gaze upon Nada. "You called out to me."

Nada shrank behind Polo, too afraid to meet Artemis's eyes. "Did I?"

"You would not have realised, but in your search for an answer to what seemed like an impossible question, your thoughts came close to breaking through reality," explained Artemis. "I felt them as if they were a beacon, allowing me for the first time to percieve your Space Anomaly and deliver myself hence. I should apologise for borrowing your body, Nada. It was the best option I could find to anchor myself here."

"It is fine," said Nada, the clash of their knocking knees like a drumroll. "You returned my body in perfect condition. I could ask for no more."

"What are you going to do now?" Naimon repeated his earlier question. "Artemis? You're free now."

"I am not free. I will never be free. Although..." Artemis looked at Naimon, so wide-eyed and pure of heart, so clearly fond of the Artemis they had once been. They looked at Cait, so fierce and-

"SHE looked at Cait," Artemis corrected the narrator.

I... what? She? All right, then.

Artemis looked at Naimon, so wide-eyed and pure of heart, so clearly fond of the Artemis she had once been. She looked at Cait, so fierce and bold, rather less willing to trust the strange being who'd burst in from out of nowhere. She looked at Polo, such a kind, friendly entity, yet so afraid, both for themself and for Nada. Nada, to whom she was a god whose mere presence sent reason scampering for the hills. At least 75% of these beings would help her if she asked.

"There is one thing I have always wanted to try. Tell me," said Artemis, "would any of you know how I might acquire an extra-fluffy cream cake, or perhaps a perpetual jam fluffer? A honeybutter doughnut would be nice as well... "


End file.
